RICHMOND, Va. — Joe Gibbs said the penalties issued to his No. 20 team are "probably one of the bigger things that's happened in my life professionally" and said he'll fight the severity of the sanctions.

Gibbs said he was troubled by his team's credibility being questioned after Matt Kenseth's race-winning car at Kansas was found to have an illegal part in the engine. Because there was no intent to gain an unfair advantage, the penalties were too harsh, Gibbs said.

NASCAR docked 50 points from the team and $200,000 from crew chief Jason Ratcliff (who was suspended for six races), but also banned Gibbs from collecting any owner points on the No. 20 car for six weeks — effectively ending the owner's championship hopes for that car.

Though the penalty is under appeal, Gibbs said he can't help but wonder how this will affect how people view Joe Gibbs Racing and its partners.

"That is something I think about all the time," said Gibbs, a devout Christian. "You spend your life trying to live a certain way. That's a real personal thing and is something that has a big effect on me."

If someone has wronged Gibbs personally in the past, he said, "The first thing I wanted to know was: 'What was their intent?'

"Was it an accident, was it a mistake or did they purposefully try to do something?" he said. "That's important to me. This motor and what happened, there was not an attempt to circumvent the rules or have an unfair competitive advantage."

But in previous cases, that has not been a factor in NASCAR penalties. Officials do not judge intent, only whether a rule was broken.

Gibbs acknowledged the illegal part — he called it a mistake "that just slipped through there" — but said his team did not deserve for the penalties to be so severe. (Partner Toyota Racing Development builds and supplies the engines; Gibbs never even looks at the engines before they go in the car.)

The team owner and former NFL coach said eight other Gibbs engines have been inspected this season without incident. He vowed to stand by TRD as a partner.

"We have no intention of bringing our motors back (in-house)," he said. "We are committed to each other. I think we have some of the most professional people in all of sports as partners there at TRD."